INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Awards Recognizing Individual Artistic Achievement

Artists provide the creative foundation for the cultural vitality of large and small communities throughout Ohio. Whether working on their own or for an organization, their spark of imagination fuels our thinking, illuminates issues and leads us to insights about the past, present and future. The OAC recognizes outstanding accomplishments by artists in a variety of disciplines through its Individual Excellence Awards program. These awards give artists the financial resources that allow them to experiment, explore and reflect as they develop their skills and advance their art form. They also provide affirmation and acknowledgment of the excellent work of artists throughout Ohio. A competitive application process focusing solely on evidence of past artistic work and an open panel review by nationally recognized professionals in each discipline ensure that the most exceptional individuals receive funding. The OAC believes that the creative landscape of Ohio depends on the presence of strong communities of artists in every corner of the state. The Individual Excellence Awards are critical to the support of the individual artists that offer their imagination and leadership to citizens every day.

Application Deadline: September 1

Calendar years ending in odd numbers (for example 2009, 2011, 2013): applications will be accepted in the following disciplines: choreography, criticism, fiction/non-fiction, music composition, playwriting/screenplays and poetry.

Calendar years ending in even numbers (for example 2010, 2012, 2014): applications will be accepted in the following disciplines: crafts, design arts/illustration, interdisciplinary/performance art, media arts, photography and visual arts.

• Who May Apply
• How to Apply
• Support Materials
• Evaluation/Scoring Process

This section of Guidelines is available as a PDF for you to download and print out if you prefer to read it offline. You must also read Appendix A: Legal Requirements if you plan to apply for OAC funding. A PDF of the complete version of the Guidelines is available in the Introduction.

WHAT THE PROGRAM SUPPORTS

The Individual Excellence Awards program provides grants to Ohio artists for the exceptional merit of a body of work. These awards recognize creativity and imagination that exemplifies the highest level of achievement in a particular discipline and advances the art form. With this support the OAC hopes to encourage the growth and development of individual artists. Awards are offered in the following areas: choreography, crafts, fiction/non-fiction, poetry, playwriting/screenplays, criticism, design arts/illustration, interdisciplinary/performance art, media arts, music composition, photography and visual arts. The awards are based solely on the quality of past work and are not project-based.

Allowable Expenses
Individual Excellence Awards may be used for a variety of expenses related to the growth and development of the artist and their work. The award may be used for any purpose designated by the receiving artist except to continue their education through a degree-granting program.

Grant Awards
Individual Excellence Awards are either $5,000 or $10,000. Grant amounts are recommended by the review panel. All recommendations must be approved by the OAC Board. This is a very competitive program; less than 10 percent of applicants are funded.

WHO MAY APPLY

Creative artists who are residents of Ohio may apply to this program. Applicants must have lived in Ohio for one year prior to the September 1 deadline and remain in the state during the grant period.

Eligibility Requirements
All applicants should read Appendix A: Legal Requirements before applying to this program.
Applicants to the Individual Excellence Awards program must be:

• An Ohio resident. The OAC defines an Ohio resident as someone who spends at least eight months of the year living and working in Ohio.
• Not a student enrolled in any degree- or certificate-granting program.

Collaborative applications are accepted from artists who have a history of working together to produce the body of work submitted and plan to continue working together. No more than two artists may apply collaboratively. If awarded an Individual Excellence Award the collaborative applicants split the award equally. Collaborative artists each need to make an application, but only one set of support materials and one narrative is required.

Artists may submit only one application per calendar year. However, artists may submit a second application in the criticism discipline if it is a separate body of work.

In calendar years ending in odd numbers (for example 2009, 2011, 2013), applications will be accepted in the following disciplines:

Choreography
Criticism
Fiction/non-fiction
Music Composition
Playwriting/screenplays
Poetry

In calendar years ending in even numbers (for example 2010, 2012, 2014), applications will be accepted in the following disciplines:

Crafts
Design arts/illustration
Interdisciplinary/performance art
Media arts
Photography
Visual arts

Additional Eligibility Information
Award recipients are not eligible to apply at the next calendar deadline. Work that resulted in an award may not be resubmitted at a future deadline. Resubmission of funded work will disqualify the applicant from the review process. Award recipients must remain residents of the state of Ohio throughout the grant period.

HOW TO APPLY

Please refer to the Grant Process for Artists on page 75 of the OAC Guidelines for a step-by-step guide on the entire process for applying for and managing an OAC grant for artists.

All applications to the Individual Excellence Awards program must be submitted via the OAC OnLine Grant Application system (OLGA). No paper applications are accepted.

Applicants must submit their application electronically via OLGA by 5 p.m. on the deadline date. If the application is not officially submitted electronically, the application will not be accepted. You will be notified via e-mail (sent through OLGA) when your application is received.

Support Materials

To complete an application for this program, all applicants must submit appropriate support materials for the discipline. Applications that do not include support materials will not be accepted.

A signed copy of the application and support materials must be received in the OAC office by 5 p.m. seven calendar days following the application deadline date (regardless of the postmarked date). If the signed application and support materials do not reach the OAC within this timeframe, the application will not be accepted. You will be notified via e-mail (sent through OLGA) when your materials are received.

For artists applying in the disciplines of choreography, criticism, fiction/non-fiction, interdisciplinary/performance art, media arts, music composition, playwriting and poetry support materials must be received in the OAC office by 5 p.m. seven calendar days following the application deadline date (regardless of the postmarked date).

For artists applying in the disciplines of crafts, design, interdisciplinary and media installations (within the media arts discipline), photography and visual art, digital images must be uploaded to OLGA by 5 p.m. seven calendar days following the application deadline date.

Support materials such as scores, librettos, audiotapes, videotapes (VHS), CDs or DVDs submitted with applications will be returned if a mailer large enough to hold them is included with the support materials. The return mailer must have the appropriate amount of U.S. postage. If an addressed, stamped mailer is not included with the support materials they will be kept for one year and then discarded. Note: manuscripts submitted in the literature category will be shredded and recycled.

If you receive an Individual Excellence Award, your support materials will be kept by the Individual Artist Grant Programs and Services Office as a permanent record.

Timeline
The timeline below presents a general outline of the grant process for the Individual Excellence Awards program. Please note that if a deadline falls on a weekend or state holiday, the deadline will be extended until the next business day.

A panel consisting of artists and arts professionals meets to evaluate and score applications in each discipline. These panel meetings are open to the public and artists are encouraged to attend so they may hear the panel's comments about the applications within that discipline.

In the panel meeting, panelists review support materials from each applicant. A series of scoring rounds narrows the pool of applications. The following scoring system is used in the preliminary rounds:

1 - Work is not competitive
2 - Work merits further consideration
3 - Work is exemplary

The scoring process is a tool to focus discussion of work that merits further consideration--it is not the primary mechanism for funding. Following the scoring rounds, a more in-depth discussion takes place about the strongest applications. When the pool of applications has been fully considered and the exemplary work has been thoroughly evaluated through panel discussion, funding recommendations are made by the panelists. After the panel meeting, these funding recommendations are presented to the OAC Board for final approval.

• Creative and inventive use of the medium
• Innovation in style and/or concept
• Outstanding technical proficiency or craftsmanship
• Compares favorably to other work in the field, regionally and nationally
• Body of work is consistently high in quality
• Exemplifies the highest level of achievement in a discipline
• Advances the art form
• Artist narrative provides context for the body of work
• Audiovisual materials are relevant and of high quality